WATCH ABOVE: After more than 40 years, 2-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw is teeing it up at Augusta National one last time. Kevin Smith has the story on this golfing legend saying goodbye to playing at The Masters.
It was 20 years ago that Ben Crenshaw stepped onto the 18th green at the Masters with his second green jacket wrapped around his shoulders. It would be the last of Crenshaw’s 19 PGA Tour wins, and the legend, who is playing little competitive golf any longer, has said this year will be his last Masters.
He’s not upset about stepping away from Augusta National. It is the right time, though he may well stay involved with the tournament in some capacity.
“This will be my last playing Masters,” Crenshaw said a couple of weeks ago in a phone interview from his Texas home.
“I’ve thought about it for a few years. The course is a bit much for me, but it needs to be for the modern player.”
Crenshaw, 63, hasn’t played much on the Champions Tour in recent years. He competed in 10 tournaments last year, but says the time has come when his game no longer fits Augusta, which has been increasingly lengthened to deal with golf’s biggest hitters, players like Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson.
Crenshaw’s run at the Masters is remarkable. He’s made the drive down Magnolia Lane every year since 1972 when he finished in a tie for 19th. He won in 1984 and again, unexpectedly, in 1995.
Along the way he fashioned a reputation as a golfer who understood the challenges of Augusta’s remarkable greens and was able to overcome them.
But as the golf course has been stretched out, Crenshaw has struggled with it, last making the cut in 2007. It is time to step away, he admits.
“I’m content to put my feet up and watch these guys battle the course,” he says.
“It has been a huge part of my life. But it is time to cut back my playing so I can hang out with Bill and the boys.”
“Bill and the boys,” is Bill Coore and his construction team, a group that has become regarded as the best golf design team in the business. Crenshaw partnered with Coore 30 years ago, and the pair have built some of the most heralded courses in the world.
In fact, Crenshaw has spent time in Canada recently working on Cabot Cliffs, a new project on the west coast of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. The spectacular course is expected to open in July. As Crenshaw’s playing days are winding down, the demand for his services in the golf design business is greater than ever.
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“It is a big part of my enjoyment of golf,” he says. “I always knew I wanted to get into architecture for a long time. I’ve studied it and it is a hobby. But when we started, almost 30 years ago, Bill turned to me and said, ‘Ben, if we can treat this job like a hobby, we’ll be fine.’ And that’s exactly what we’ve done. We don’t do a lot of courses. We try to sink our teeth into work that interests us and excites us.”
With courses like Cabot Cliffs and Friars Head in New York receiving huge praise, and an upcoming development in Wisconsin moving forward, Crenshaw has created an impressive second act in a lengthy career.
“I treat it like an opportunity to contribute to the game,” he says. “I’m proud of my playing career, but I think Jack Nicklaus has always said people will remember him for his body of work, which is substantial. And certainly people will never forget his playing career. They’ll forget me, don’t worry about that. But if you’ve left something on the ground there’s no question it has a more lasting quality.”
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